castleinthemist | .5th Fantasy Impromptu [Closed to Harth]

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.5th Fantasy Impromptu [Closed to Harth]

She hasn't seen Duo since that day in the common room.

She had helped him with the leather he'd gotten from the fountain, helped him with his hair and he had even given her a small weapon - a knife - to defend herself with out in the castle. It had been a good evening. One she enjoyed. One of the few she actually enjoyed in her time there. She really did seem to like being around him, though she couldn't exactly explain why her mechanical heart always felt so fluttery and light whenever he was around, or why she became so flustered and awkward at the drop of a hat with him.

And suddenly he wasn't there. And she noticed.

Haku waited a while, quietly worrying while trying so hard to not outwardly show it. She didn't want to cause undue panic, thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was being needlessly paranoid. He was sleeping more than usual, or had explored further in the castle and was there, just fine and alive with no need to be worried over.

But when a full day passed she couldn't take it anymore. And that's when she did something foolish.

Taking up the knife that he had given her, she tied her long skirt up and did her hair back in a loose bun, setting off without telling anyone where she was going. She had hoped she was wrong, that she wouldn't get very far and find him safe. Sure he might scold her for going out alone like an older brother to a younger sibling, but she wouldn't care so long as she knew he was okay.

And if she got to the end of the trolley - the furthest she had ever gone - and he wasn't there... then she would come back before anyone could realize she'd left. No harm, no foul. Any shadows? She'd run. Any other sign of trouble? She'd scream then run. In her mind it was a decent plan, for all it's holes.

Quietly she headed out to the bridge, past the stair tower and on to the next level, looking around as the wind brought the scent of the sea to her nose and fluttered loose strands of white hair past her face. She tucked some behind her ear instinctively, pausing to look around and strain her ears to listen. There were no sounds aside from the distant cry of gulls flying over the crashing sea.

"Not here..." she muttered to herself, continuing up the next stairwell. That was when she finally took note of the off-colored stairs that led to the broken domed roof over the building next to the upper platform, above the trolley tracks. She paused and strained her ears once again, but the same silence met her.

What if he was down there... what if he was hurt... ?

"Duo-kun... ?" she called out nervously, then cleared her throat and tried again, actually letting her powerful voice carry for once. "Oiiiiiii! Duo-kuuuuuuun!"

Her voice echoed back at her, but she thought that for a moment, just a moment, she heard another voice calling softly back to her...

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Her normal form had returned to her, solid and real, with only the tiniest bit of shadow curling from her limbs as it left her.

She was still, though, not even drawing air in to her mechanical lungs. No longer broken, she had no reason to remain shut down, but something was preventing her from waking up fully.

Whatever it was, Harth didn't quite care to know. All he did now was pick her up and throw her over his shoulder like a fireman and pray that there was nobody else in at the rooms at this hour. He didn't hear anyone, but you could never count on that. So he moved, shifting himself just in case he did come across anyone so she lay draped across his arms.

Even moving didn't wake her. She lay limply in his grip, more or less a doll to be carried around.

Oh, but she was a doll, wasn't she? Didn't see herself that way? Miraculously, he carried her all the way to his own room and set her on the bed. From there, he started flipping through his books.

Some time passed. A hour. Probably more. Eventually things started working in Haku again. Clicking, whirring, systems starting up, checking, scanning.

Soon enough her red eyes opened, staring blankly at the unfamiliar ceiling above her. What had happened? Why was she here and why did she feel so strange? Disjointed, even.

Right.

She had died.

But she wasn't dead anymore. She was whole. No parts shattered, no limbs torn away. Just... herself, and a lot of frightening memories.

Another chapter, another page turned. Harth had turned his attention to the droid for a bit, then back to the book. He waited for her to say something before he responded.

"Working properly again?"

"... yes," Haku said quietly. Her head turned, red eyes staring at Harth in quiet, tired confusion.

"Why... ?"

"I don't need to explain it, do I?" Harth asked, flipping through another page of his archaic book.

"You fell, completely avoidable."

"No..." Haku shook her head slowly, "Why did you help me... ?"

"Because it may benefit me." Harth replies blandly and truthfully.

"Because I've learned a great deal today, and you're going to help me find Toph and revive her." He said with a smile, looking back at the woman.

Haku blinked slowly a few times, sitting up with a slight wince. Her systems were on and repaired but things still felt off. A bit of an ache had settled in to her joints, though damned if she knew why. A side effect of the fountain perhaps.

"What?" she asked, recalling what had made her fall in the first place. Dead eyes, staring at her. Toph was dead. But she had been, too, and the fountain had brought her back. Was that what he wanted.

"... why?"

"Because I'm fond of her." A half truth. She might actually grow on her if she stopped playing her rockheaded stunts on him. That was what led him to decide to drain her in the first place.

However, provided she didn't remember that? Provided she didn't recall that and come after him for revenge?

Hm. He smiled a bit. Make things interesting here, that would certainly.

"... funny. She's never mentioned you before," Haku said with noted suspicion in her voice. True, she may not have talked to Toph as much as she talked to Duo or Quatre, but even so she made a valid point.

"I've spoken to her a few times, but I'm new also." He explains, finding an interesting spell and reading through it.

"A month? I didn't leave my room much."

"... give me a reason to trust you, Harth-san. You've walked in to my dreams uninvited and watched as several others broke in to a panic over hallucinated memories and did nothing."

She swallowed hard, trying to ignore how much her mechanical heart was racing. She didn't normally stand up to people like this, but something about the whole thing didn't sit well with her.

"When everyone else is working together you've been on the sidelines. That's not exactly something I can trust."

Hmf. He smirked at her a bit.

"Who says you need to trust me?" He read a bit of the spell, then turned the pages.

"As for my non involvement? That's just it. I tend to be more of a watcher than an active participant. Or at least I am when I actually have people under my employ." He looked back to Haku.

"I have a spell I want to try, Haku. Transmutation. Turn your mechanical body into a human."

"Wha-..." Haku's mouth dropped open, head shaking frantically as she retreated back, any tone of defiance dropped and replaced with fearful crying out. "N-no... why-- ... I don't want to be human! I'm fine just the way I am!"

She inched back on the bed until her shoulders hit the wall behind her, suddenly afraid of what he might do to her if she dared to be any closer than that.

"Leave me alone... please..."

He just stated at her, patiently.

"And yet you were dead and broken a moment ago. Lucky you, getting revived by the grace of our humble hosts and their magic." He started, turning fully to her.

"Yet you do this? Do something for me, and I'll do something for you. I'll find Toph, bring her back. And fulfill whatever..." He reaches over and presses his finger to where her sternum might be. He taps it twice.

"Whatever's in your heart. Metaphorically."

"My.... heart..."

She touched her chest where he had tapped, painted nails digging in to the fabric of her shirt. She felt her artificial heart thudding against her ribs, knowing that her Kokoro unit that gave her life as well as a soul also led to the human-like emotions she had inside.

Human-like. But not human.

Maybe if she was human... those confusing feelings would finally make more sense. Maybe if she was human, she would be stronger. Better. Some one worth existing.

She had lied when she cried that she was fine the way she was. She didn't really believe that. It was just something she tried to say to make herself feel better.

"... all I have to do... is do something for you? That's it?" she asked uncertainly, "... would anyone get hurt if I did... ?"

"More people would get hurt if you didn't." Harth said calmly, the corner's of his lips flat lining briefly, then smiling, reaching over to cup Haku's chin gently.

"I'm a vampire, Haku. Human blood. I don't eat gruel." He said, his hand falling away.

"And if you volunteer? I can heal you."

"A-..."

She couldn't even finish it. The idea was insane. Unbelievable. There was no way--...

But how had Toph died? Even shadows wouldn't have left her like that. And there were no other creatures there that could have killed her. Not with her ability.

Slow as Haku could be some times, she wasn't completely dumb, and the pieces were finally starting to fall in to place for her.

"Ohh..."

The noise was weak, a tremor of a sound that fell from her lips. She shivered visibly, trying to pull away from him but having nowhere to go.

So she figured it out.

"I'll get you what you want. Humanity, security. Protection of you and your loved ones..." He smiles a bit.

"Bare in mind, Haku. This is your chance to rise to the occasion. Protect those you care about by doing something very simple. Further? Once we find Toph and bring her in? My crime would be negated." Regardless of whatever pain he might have caused. He didn't really care.

To say she was afraid would have been a gross understatement. She was terrified. She didn't know how to deal with being human, but he was offering her a chance to do more than she'd ever been able to do for the people she'd come to care about in that short amount of time at the castle. The very thing she craved the most - to be useful.

For a price.

"... wouldn't... it be more beneficial to everyone... even you... if we found a way out of here...?" she stuttered weakly, biting back the desire to simply curl in to a ball and sob uncontrollably. She wanted this nightmare to be over, but her mind knew that it was really just beginning.

"Hm. Of course it would." He said, still watching her from his seat at the end of the bed.

"To get out of here?" To find real prey? Yes. Of course it would be. "And to find a way home. That may not necessarily be possible if we're in another dimension. Be thankful this isn't a hell dimension of legend, Haku." He pauses.

"Or maybe that's exactly what it is. Either way? I doubt we're getting home. So I'll make you a promise. I know it doesn't mean much coming from me, but I won't kill you. If you serve me I'll do what I can to give you the fulfillment you wish so much for. The affirmation."

She still wanted to cry. She was still afraid. But did she really have any room to refuse him? At the very least he was offering something in return. She didn't know what she was getting herself in to, not completely, but her mind continually returned to the people she cared about. The faces of those she wanted to protect but had been too weak to up until then.

An unneeded breath in, eyes closing, all so she could steel herself against the one weak word she let fall from her lips.

"Okay..."

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